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FACELIFT?: Churubusco looks to spruce up downtown

CHURUBUSCO — Some say it’s time to beautify Churubusco’s Main Street.Members of the Churubusco Main Street Project took a short walk through downtown Churubusco recently to take a look at some of the oldest buildings in Whitley County.Lucas Konger, an architect who grew up in Churubusco, is assisting the committee with his professional opinion.“The buildings, for the most part, are pretty simple projects,” said Konger. “If you look at historic pictures of downtown Churubusco and compare them with what‘s there today, many of the windows simply have been covered up. I’ll wager the windows are still there and would need a little updating.”Members of the MSP are Konger, Aaron Mathieu, Frank Kessler, Pete Allen, Dick Littlefield, Carey Jacquay, Dave Pearson, John Schmidt and Robin Plasterer.Recently the committee made short-term, medium-term and long-term projects. Some of the short-term projects include flower pots in front of the buildings, the town clean-up day (which was May 5) and the organization of a town-wide garage sale which is slated for Sept. 28 and 29.One of the medium-term projects is completed. That was the mural of Wayne Brumbaugh’s Popcorn Stand which was placed on the Lucky Lady building two weeks ago. The other projects are trash containers, benches and restoring the arches on some of the windows downtown. The long term projects include lights, possibly 10 on each side of the street.A total of $25,000 is available for Churubusco businesses to apply for grants. “We will match the grant up to $5,000 for businesses. But we only have $25,000 to give,” said Kessler.A meeting is being planned for all of the business owners to explain this project and grant process.The MSP committee will meet again on May 29.